[Cyberyeti]

---

How do you play this in 6♥ (or indeed 4♥) at matchpoints ? Lead is J♦, E plays 2 showing an odd number.

Opps are silent in whatever auction you have.

I'll post the other hands later.

[manudude03]

I only see one obvious line. Win the diamond A, 2 rounds of trumps ending in dummy and play a spade to the K then:

a) if it holds, duck a spade. If I have a trump entry, I can hope for the spade ace coming down in 3, or if they didn't switch to clubs, a black suit squeeze.
b) if the spade loses, then I win the next trick in hand, play the spade queen and ruff a spade, then run the trumps hoping for the same squeeze (whether or not it is positional depends on the switch, club switch makes it positional).

[gnasher]

In Manudude's line, if ♠K loses to the ace and they play back a club, it's probably better to play a trump squeeze instead: win the club in hand, then cash all but one trump and ♦AK, blanking ♣A. That works when either player has the sole guards in the black suits, but you have to read the ending.

[Cyberyeti]

My other question is would it make any difference what line you played if you were playing at a club or against top internationals ?

This occurred at my local club yesterday, we scored 57.26% which was good enough for 5/20 and I believe this sums up the standard.

[whereagles]

The club is playing 4H. Any line that makes is a top.

[Fluffy]

against opponents so bad that might fly with ♠A I still paly the same line mannudude and gnasher said, because LHO is bad enough to lead ♠A, so I expect RHO to be the one who flies with ♠A

[Cyberyeti]

whereagles, on 2012-January-07, 05:27, said:

The club is playing 4H. Any line that makes is a top.

Surprisingly:

6= 1
4+2 3
4+1 5
6-1 1

we conceded 4+1

[Cyberyeti]

These are the opponents' hands

---

You have I think (be happy to be proved wrong) to be pretty careful with your discards when you run the hearts, and have to get rid of the 8 and 9 of clubs to allow you to hook the 7 and be able to cash the K after the man with QJx pitches 2. I'm sure nobody at the club was up to this.

So how did 4 out of 10 declarers make 12 ? Nobody got the 10♠ lead which is one way, but J♦(twice), Q♣ and small trump were the chosen leads.

I'm beginning to wonder if they just banged out 5 rounds of trumps without touching the spades, and given the choice of ♠A1098 and ♣QJx, people just threw a spade allowing them to be ruffed out.

The double dummy calculator says you can only make 5, presumably a club lead and continuation just kills it.

[bluecalm]

Quote

The double dummy calculator says you can only make 5, presumably a club lead and continuation just kills it.

I don't get it. Why would he ever discard 2 clubs ? I mean unblucking 98 of clubs is nice play because LHO might make a mistake but he has no legitimate reason to discards clubs I believe ?
He just holds to his ♣QJx and A♠ and if you reduce it to 3 card ending he discard one club which is still enough to prevent you from taking 3 club tricks. What am I missing here ?

[Cyberyeti]

bluecalm, on 2012-January-08, 00:30, said:

I don't get it. Why would he ever discard 2 clubs ? I mean unblucking 98 of clubs is nice play because LHO might make a mistake but he has no legitimate reason to discards clubs I believe ?
He just holds to his ♣QJx and A♠ and if you reduce it to 3 card ending he discard one club which is still enough to prevent you from taking 3 club tricks. What am I missing here ?

You're missing that as soon as he discards a spade, you establish dummy's 4th spade, so if he just jealously guards his clubs, you're home, his first discard (after throwing his diamonds) must be a club, and this is much easier to see if the spades have been played before the squeezing trump is led.

In fact I miscounted the tricks slightly, I don't think the squeeze operates here as you can only force him to discard one club, so would have needed him to hold ♣QJ10.

[bluecalm]

Quote

In fact I miscounted the tricks slightly

Unfortunately in this game you either miscounted badly or got it right.

[Cyberyeti]

bluecalm, on 2012-January-08, 05:03, said:

Unfortunately in this game you either miscounted badly or got it right.

Not quite, opps are still there to do the same